Care for Nature

Aug 20 2014

New Website Location

Please visit the new and more regularly updated website dolphineye.carefornature.org (Dolphin Eye Studios), which will continue Care for Nature’s work more effectively than before.

As of Wednesday August 20, 2014, carefornature.org will not be officially or regularly updated, but will still remain online to preserve its content.

Currently, the environmental group itself, Care for Nature, will no longer be actively maintained, due to lack of sufficient staff and a shift on focus from traditional activism to art-inspired activism. The new organization, Dolphin Eye Studios, should cover any further environmental developments, including the continuation of significant Care for Nature campaigns.

Apr 22 2014

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Uncategorized

Less is More: Nine Tips for Doing Good

by Eli B.C.

In today’s society, the common person often wonders if they have any power. Advertisements brainwash us to go off and buy unnecessarily, media and television treat us as if we are stupid. Corporations only listen to us if doing so would instantly stuff another fifty billion dollars in their pockets, while they continue to exploit people and ravage the environment. Governments are corrupt and squabble amongst themselves in over-polarized partisan arguments that drown out the needs of their people, or at least bog them down in bureaucratic paperwork. What can I do, I often ask myself? What power do I have?

It turns out that the best way to start tackling a large problem is to think small. I thought of these just today on Earth Day, when I was wishing I could be zapping plastic out of the oceans like a superhero, but must be content with picking up litter in my neighborhood. It’s a start, and nothing can end without first starting. I hope these tips will help you start on your efforts to help the world on any issue you are passionate about.

Real power is not money or explosives. It is the ability to change something from the way it was before, large or small, either on your own or as a part of a group effort.
You do not need to be a leader to have power, as long as there are people who will listen to and respect you. Educate, enlighten, and mobilize your friends and family.
To be motivated to act on an issue, people need to know how much, either in scope or significance, it impacts us and our world. Just knowing it exists usually does not motivate action.
The first most important thing to know about a problem is that for every wrong action, there is not one, but numerous options for doing it right.
Just one action can be a big help. If you pick up a plastic bag off the street and recycle it, you’ve reduced the possibility of a sea turtle accidentally eating it if it ends up in the ocean. You just saved a turtle’s life. On top of that, you also saved all of his/her descendants, which could someday number hundreds of turtles over time (and they’re cute as babies).
Do not worry about getting funny looks for changing your lifestyle. History is filled with activists that have gotten far worse for standing up for their just cause. You can be slightly odd and safe at the same time, so take advantage of it!
This is a day by day effort, do not forget to do something small each day. Make sure you have some sort of reminder for the lifestyle changes you implemented, or else you may forget, putting you back to square one. No action is too small.
If the federal government or multinational corporations seem too daunting, try to push for changes in your local government and businesses first. It’s a good place to start, and may send a message to the other governments and businesses out there to clean up their act, too.
We as people have true power. It can be useful, and it can be good. Let’s not neglect it.

Apr 22 2014

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Articles, Writing

Happy Earth Day! Some Important Green Tips

Save the Planet, but Hold onto Your Head: Five Major Environmental Tips

by Eli B.C.

I have spent so much time puzzling over how to change the world in one fell swoop, that I found myself not changing anything, large or small. Today on Earth Day, I would like to remind us all that it’s the little things adding up that count. There are many books out there on how to be “green”, and this is not meant to be a substitute; however, this is a simple reminder of the changes you can make to your lifestyle that touches most of the bases without overwhelming you. I hope the simplicity of this list will encourage you to take some easy steps to be kind to the Earth that all life needs to survive.

Garbage in, garbage out. On top of recycling, avoid buying things that are meant to be thrown away, this includes shopping bags, water bottles, food containers, tableware, and packaging, as well as other items.
Use less energy. Turn it off, turn it down, and get efficient appliances (Energy Star certified). This applies to anything that runs on electricity, heats or cools your home, or cooks your food.
Labels can be liars. Only trust labels and certifications if they:
1. Are government approved, such as Energy Star and USDA organic.
2. If they are from a known non-profit organization, such as the Rainforest Alliance Certified green frog seal.
3. The label is very specific about HOW the product is good for the environment (“Green” alone is too vague, but “no chemical pesticides or fertilizers” is specific).
If you cannot recognize or pronounce an ingredient, it’s up to something. This is not only for food (these are usually derived from cheap vegetable oil grown with many toxic fertilizers and pesticides), but for cleaning chemicals, too. Look for soaps and cleaners that are both biodegradable and understandable.
Do the environment a favor it has been dying for. Your life may be busy and stressful, but saving the planet is a day by day struggle that needs day by day attention. Just remember to do a little each day, and you’re good.

Apr 06 2014

Proposed Disposable Shopping Bag Fee in NYC

On Wednesday March 25, 2014, the New York City Council introduced a bill to place a 10-cent fee on all disposable shopping bags, both plastic and paper, in supermarkets, grocery stores, and other major retailers. Los Angeles is currently the largest city with a plastic bag ban, which was enacted in January. The 10 cent fee would go directly to the retailer, not the government, as this is not a tax. This will encourage people to bring their own reusable shopping bags, if they do not do so already.

The majestic sea turtle is one of the most well-documented victims of choking on plastic bags used by humans. The contents of a dead sea turtle’s digestive tract. Credit (left): Lance Morgan, Australian Seabird Rescue/Marine Photobank

New York City Residents use and throw away 5.2 billion plastic bags each year. These plastic bags end up in the waterways and oceans, where it entangles and chokes marine life. An estimated 100,000 marine animals and one million seabirds die as a result of plastic debris in the North Pacific Ocean. This happens to be the location of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area the size of Texas where plastic debris collect inside the ocean currents that spiral around the area. There is now more plastic than plankton in the ocean by sheer numbers of individuals, with 46,000 pieces per square mile.

The most well known impact of plastic bags on wildlife is on Sea Turtles. Almost all of the sea turtle species are Endangered, such as the Loggerhead, Green, and Hawksbill Sea Turtles. The predatory species, the well known case being Loggerhead turtles, mistake floating plastic bags for their jellyfish prey. When they eat it, it clogs their intestines, and they die.

Each year 12 million barrels of oil, or 417,061,695 gallons of oil, to make a year’s worth of plastic bags.

Paper bags are biodegradable, but they still require cutting down trees to make them. On top of that, the manufacturing process of making disposable paper shopping bags produces fifty times more water pollution and and about five times as much air pollution as the manufacturing of plastic bags. The bottom line is the same as it has always been in the environmental movement: Use your own bag (cloth/canvas).

The bill is currently being debated and voted on in the city council. Please sign the petition to City Hall to support this bill, so that New York will stop contributing to the plastic bag pollution that is using up our resources and ruining the oceans. Continue reading →

Dec 21 2013

5 Comments

Writing

Money Cannot Buy a Green Christmas

All I want this Christmas season is for the planet to be safe. I do not see why something so necessary is such a lot to ask.

All I want this Christmas season is for life on Earth to be safe from harm. I do not see why something so necessary is such a lot to ask.

Merry Christmas,

I was asked a few times this year what I want Christmas, to which for the first time I replied, “Nothing really.” It caught me by surprise, but then I realized what I really meant to say, which was “Nothing that money can buy.” Recently, I have been wracking my brain with the current environmental issues I am passionate about, fretting over the predictions of bee species extinctions in the year 2019, the end of the rainforests in 2027, and the climate warming beyond repair in 2028. I am just one person, and many smarter and better-equipped people have frantically sought the solutions to these as the clock of doom ticks. So what do I want for Christmas? I want these problems to be solved, or for a solution to present itself, despite all of the societal, monetary, and logistical hurdles to saving the environmental.

The problem is, it is not just as easy as bringing in the solutions. The large corporations that do most of the polluting and habitat clearing are greedily focused on short-term gain, and are not willing to change their ways quickly. They have most of the money, so if we, the consumers and average citizens, want to take matters into our own hands, say, buy organic food or put up solar panels, we find ourselves short on cash. And where is that money that we need for that? It is with the very businesses that cause these problems in the first place. The government, too is bogged down in political squabble and lobbying by corporations to ever do anything without a large push.

That is too negative for Christmas, so let us move on. What I really want for Christmas is some way to save life on Earth from such a seemingly impossible gridlock of greed and apathy. I should not even be wishing for this, for this is the natural right of every specie that depends on this planet for survival, and it should not take all of these crazy wishes. Why is it so hard to care, and respect each living specie as important and a life form worth protecting? Why is the human race almost hard-wired to destroy the planet, and itself with it?

And since it’s that time of year, is not love, caring, and peace what Christmas is all about? And for that very reason, why should my Christmas wish be considered crazy? It is not only in one of the highest regards of the meaning of Christmas, but it is a necessity, and that is more than I can say for many material Christmas presents. No sum of money can buy the Earth its salvation, it would be easier for someone to buy me a solid gold statue for Christmas, because that is a material thing, because that can be bought with money, and that is how our society works. Does that sound fair, that on a holiday dedicated to love and peace, it would be easier to buy someone a material object they want than fight for the world salvation they need?

Regardless of this, I will continue wishing for a green christmas. Fear not, however, for while the full terms of the wish may seem ambitious, that will not stop us from getting closer and closer to the fulfillment of that wish, with every small action we put in to help the planet. So keep fighting for the Earth, and someday, that Christmas wish may come true.

Happy Holidays,

E.B.C.
Founder of Care for Nature

Dec 06 2013

Animal Perspectives: Care for Nature’s First Collaborative Animated Film

This film, the idea for which was conceived in 2009, and finally recorded and animated in 2012 through 2013, explores two seemingly far-away environmental issues through the eyes of the local wildlife, which should bring a level of empathy and humanity to issues usually not often thought or cared about in the United States. Dolphin Eye Films plans to make more environmentally-themed shorts in the future.

Dec 06 2013

Take Action: Eating Away Indonesia

Eating Away Indoensia

Problem: The large-scale production of palm oil, a vegetable oil additive found in half of all processed products in American supermarkets (snack foods, candy, detergents, cosmetics), is the leading cause of rainforest clearing in Indonesia, which is driving the local wildlife to extinction, such as the endangered orangutans, tigers, and rhinos that live there.

Solution: Please quickly sign the online petition at tinyurl.com/cleanpalm, hosted by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) telling the 20 largest snack food brands to only use socially responsible palm oil.

(more information coming in a future article)

Environmental Media and Art Group

Less is More: Nine Tips for Doing Good

Save the Planet, but Hold onto Your Head: Five Major Environmental Tips